


to drift

by dawnmarionette



Category: Free!
Genre: Established Relationship, Exam Season Hell, Fluff, Late Night Conversations, M/M, hiyori lowkey talks like a shitpost and aesthetic blogger you literally cannot convince me otherwise, this is so dumb and gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-08 19:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17392178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dawnmarionette/pseuds/dawnmarionette
Summary: Ikuya turns left instead of right when they get to the sidewalk and Hiyori follows, glancing back curiously to where he knows there’s a convenience store right around the corner in the opposite direction. “Not that I doubt you, Ikuya, but where are we going?” He sounds more amused than anything, so it's probably fine.“The long way,” he says, and presses his lips together at the way Hiyori beams back at him.





	to drift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CMeister](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CMeister/gifts).



> [recommended listening](https://soundcloud.com/asuran_rocks/ueiuykjwyqga) \+ [the lyrics i translated real quick bc they're sweet](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lnpz5gtNPUj1v6oZm_Ln4szPRRwW1hT0MglaLjQtRBs/edit)
> 
> done for [@CoffeeMeisterx](https://twitter.com/CoffeeMeisterx) in the [@dive2thenewyear](https://twitter.com/dive2thenewyear) project! i had a lot of fun writing this and it was a blast seeing everyone's contributions!! thank you guys all so much for a great experience!

_His coffee must be cold by now,_ Ikuya thinks. It’s been sitting there for awhile, untouched. He hadn’t really noticed earlier, but since coming out of the shower he still hasn’t seen Hiyori drink any of it. In fact, his boyfriend is sitting at his desk along the opposite wall with his head propped up on his hand like he’s bored out of his mind.

“Hiyori?” he tries. “Do you want me to put on some new coffee?” No answer. Maybe he’s wearing headphones? Ikuya leaves the towel around his shoulders so his hair doesn’t drip on the floor and pads over to see what he’s doing, but ends up stifling a small laugh instead. Hiyori’s dozing, chin dangerously close to slipping off from where it rests on his palm and hitting his keyboard instead.

Ikuya would like to let him sleep, but Hiyori had told him on their walk to practice that there’s a _huge_ test tomorrow and he put off studying _way_ too long, Ikuya, don’t let him do this _ever_ again, there’s an all nighter in his future and then he’s going to pass the _fuck_ out as soon as the test is over, thanks for nothing, Nanase.

(Haru, obviously, has nothing to do with Hiyori’s incidental lack of foresight about the spur of the moment extra practices their coach had subjected them to, but he’s taken to blaming Haru for the most mundane problems he possibly can, and Ikuya always elbows him but it really _is_ funny imagining the _look_ Haru would give him if he somehow overheard.)

“Hiyori,” he says again, this time shaking his shoulder gently. He doesn’t like being woken up by other people, for as often as he tended to make cheery “wake-up calls!” to Ikuya before breakfast, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made. “C’mon, up. You’re the one who told me not to let you skip studying tonight. Up.”

Luckily Hiyori is a light sleeper, because he’d feel bad having to raise his voice. Eyes squint tighter in annoyance or denial or just exhaustion, then blink open. “Mngh, Ikuya? What time is it?”

“Eight thirty,” he says, taking the now ice cold coffee to take to the sink.

“At night? Ah, damn,” Hiyori mutters, rubbing the sleeve of his sweatshirt across his eyes. Privately, Ikuya thinks it’s adorable, because most people just wipe their eye with a finger to get the sleep out and move on but Hiyori always does it with his sleeve or the back of his hand, in a sort of childlike tendency he doesn’t even seem to realize he has because he’s always half-asleep when he does it.

“You always act like cramming is the worst thing in the world, but you make top grades even when you only study the morning of the test,” Ikuya says instead of any of that, because he’d die of embarrassment if he tried to tell Hiyori how cute he is. He doesn’t understand how Hiyori can say all the affectionately sappy things he does without batting an eye. “Do you want a drink or something to help wake you up? Did you eat dinner?”

“No, thank you.” Hiyori stretches, then slumps, his keyboard beeping in protest at so many keys being pressed at once. “And no. Fell asleep.”

“You need to eat.” Ikuya frowns. He isn’t accustomed to being on this end of the caretaking, but being around Hiyori so much is a great way to learn by example. “There’s no way you’ll do well on the test or at practice if you don’t.” Then he grimaces, remembering the fridge is pathetically bare save for a bowl of rice and a few bottles of Pocari. “Let’s go to the convenience store. You can get onigiri or a sandwich and then I won’t have to worry about you passing out in the pool tomorrow.”

Ikuya doesn’t have much room to criticize on that front and they both know it but Hiyori is too nice to point it out. “Fine, you’re right. Moonlit stroll with my dear, darling Ikuya it is.”

He blushes down to his collarbone and turns sharply on his heel to find his phone and wallet. “Shut up, this is for your _health._ ”

“Being around my cute boyfriend is good for my health~”

“Hurry up and get dressed!”

It takes another minute to wait for Hiyori to throw on jeans but then they’re out the door, the _click_ of the lock that temporarily separates them both from the stressors of essays and projects and expectations somehow comforting. Ikuya leads the way, because even though Hiyori seems perfectly awake by now he’s wary. Once he’d seemed ‘perfectly awake’ for his morning class but Ikuya saw him nearly walk into a door frame on the way there, so he knows not to trust appearances with Hiyori. He tries to be _good_ so much of the time that he doesn’t have to be.

Ikuya turns left instead of right when they get to the sidewalk and Hiyori follows, glancing back curiously to where he knows there’s a convenience store right around the corner in the opposite direction. “Not that I doubt you, Ikuya, but where are we going?” He sounds more amused than anything, so Ikuya indulging his admittedly sentimental whims is probably fine.

“The long way,” he says, and presses his lips together at the way Hiyori beams back at him.

“Looking for an excuse to have more alone time?” he teases. “You could’ve just said so.”

“N-not really, it’s just- I want to look at the stars,” he says, because he does. The light pollution always kills the sight in the city but for once there’s a handful visible, and it’s relaxing to enjoy them. It’s true that he didn’t realize that until he’d already turned the corner, but Hiyori might still be too sleepy to-

Hiyori laughs, loud but not loud enough to be mean. “Been reading some romance novels lately, Ikuya?”

“Shut up! Is this what I get for being nice?” He huffs a breath and speeds up so Hiyori has to jog for a few steps to catch up. “You can buy your own food.”

“Aw, you were going to treat me? How thoughtful, you’re the best.” It’s infuriating how hard it is to respond to his praise because he doesn’t even say it to embarrass Ikuya, he says it because he means it.

Ikuya mumbles something about the time and Hiyori lets him avoid answering for real, slipping his hand into Ikuya’s. His thumb rubs gentle over Ikuya’s skin. It’s a habit he picked up a while back, long before Ikuya relearned how to be honest about his feelings and would opt to stay silent when his emotions were raging in his chest. It was like Hiyori could sense it even without Ikuya saying so, because, when Ikuya would allow company during his moods, he would deliberately take Ikuya’s hands in his own and massage them gently, as if he was made of glass. In that sense, it was pretty much useless as an actual massage for his muscles or tendons or anything else, really, but it was nice, and it allowed Ikuya to relax, bit by bit. He doesn’t need to be soothed like that anymore, but Hiyori’s always done that, and Ikuya lets him because now it seems like it calms Hiyori down just as much.

“You were right, though, it’s pretty out tonight.” Hiyori looks at the sky, and Ikuya looks at him. “It makes me want to run away with you.”

Ikuya blinks. “Where did that come from?”

“Mm. I think about it a lot, actually. What it’d be like if it was just you and me and the road. Isn’t it fun, to imagine?”

Crowds going to and from work and dinner pass by them in every direction, but Hiyori’s hand is warm, and Ikuya lets the sensation sweep over him. If it were just them out in the world… well, he would miss his other friends, but putting that aside- it _would_ be nice. Ikuya would steal the AUX away from him every so often, because even though Hiyori complains that his music is “boring” (Ikuya _likes_ acoustic, thank you) he wouldn’t be able to stand the mix of K-Pop, weird niche remixes of classical music, and that one GUMI song he refuses to delete for hours on end. They could try cafes across the country, wherever they wanted. Sample different kinds of teas, pastries, regional specialties and Hiyori could write about it all on his food blog which, if asked, he will deny running.

It’s a dumb fantasy, because dropping out of school and competitive swimming to sleep in a car would be awful, but being with Hiyori makes him feel like even his most irrational ideas are worthwhile. He says Ikuya is strong and smart and capable so often that it’s hard not to start to believe him after so long.

He, again, can’t say this, though. It’s so hard to put these kinds of feelings into the open air, but the way Hiyori’s eyes crinkle in a smile when Ikuya is struggling to get the words out tells him he may already know.

“Are you sure you aren’t just dreaming about running away from your test?” Ikuya squeezes Hiyori’s hand, so he knows that he _did_ think about it, and trusts he’ll understand everything Ikuya can never convey quite right. The understanding is a river between them, silent but cultivated over time to something natural and flowing.

“Nah, I’m pretty sure I dream about Ikuya, exclusively.”

“I don’t understand how you say things like that with a straight face…”

They round a corner, past a closed flower shop, and Hiyori points out some vases of colorful puffs of flowers in the window. “I was reading about flower language a couple weeks ago.” That’s not surprising. Not because Ikuya expected Hiyori to be interested in flower language, but because it’s very common for him to get bored away from practice, work, or Ikuya and pick up a studious book on some subject he knows nothing about. His random knowledge lends itself to some fun trivia games, if nothing useful. “Do you know what daisies are for?”

“No,” Ikuya says. “But I think you’re about to tell me right now.”

“They mean ‘faith,’” Hiyori continues in a commendable show of ignoring the sarcasm in Ikuya’s tone. “I’d get some for you if they were open.”

He does his absolute best to pretend like he’s not affected by that, which he definitely is, because even after all this time of Hiyori still drops loving sentiments on him at the most random times and is always entirely heartfelt about it. He’s not sure how to deal with it, so normally he doesn’t acknowledge it outright; tonight under the glow of neon signs is no different because he’s not yet brave enough to break that habit, but it isn’t a bad thing.

“All right, what do those mean? Carnations.”

Hiyori scratches his neck bashfully. “I don’t actually know. I can only remember like five flowers now. I didn’t read that much of the book.”

“You’re an idiot,” Ikuya lies, and Hiyori laughs, light and charming as a rainshower. Ikuya thinks that he might be comparing everything to water lately because Haru is rubbing off on him.

“I’m your idiot, I~kuya.” The way he draws out Ikuya’s name makes him want to turn away, but he resolutely keeps his poker face even though Hiyori knows to look at his neck to see if he’s blushing. Hunching his shoulders doesn’t work because his sweatshirt has a low collar but he still gives it a shot.

“Sh-shut up, we’re in public,” Ikuya says as if he actually cares. Granted, his anxiety cares a lot, but consciously he knows he’d rather be nervous about PDA than turn Hiyori down and see him pretend not to be a tiny bit disappointed about it. “Anyways, you need to get better at studying. You can’t keep cramming like this and expect to make it through university.” It’s an awkward subject change but it’s _true_ and for as put-together as Hiyori presents himself it’s a wonder he’s never fainted on his feet in the _several_ years Ikuya has seen him pulling multiple all-nighters for finals season.

“It’s so much easier to only remember the material for like a week, though.” There’s the procrastinator in him. Ikuya sighs. They stop to wait at a crosswalk, Hiyori pulling Ikuya closer in an unconscious motion because they always stick close in crowds after enduring Tokyo trains together for so long.

“We could study together,” Ikuya says, even though he knows full well Hiyori will agree only to end up drinking coffee and reading or distracting Ikuya from his own actual studying.

“Sure, whenever you want.”

The light changes and they start walking again, Ikuya focusing on the way Hiyori keeps his grip firm when the throng of bodies around them jostles them a bit. It’s sweet. Kind of overprotective, since it isn’t as if he’s anywhere close to panicking right now, but Hiyori’s constant attentiveness to their circumstances for things like this is reassuring.

Ikuya doesn’t consciously decide to say anything but his mouth still opens and says, “You’re too good to me.”

It would be more than likely for Hiyori to be taken aback by something like that because he’s a perfect dedicated boyfriend who supports Ikuya’s slowly improving self-esteem, but Ikuya doesn’t expect the way he actually stops short where they are on the sidewalk, pulling Ikuya back as well and forcing the people around them to avoid the sudden obstacle.

“There’s nobody on the _planet_ too good for you,” Hiyori breathes. His eyes are more intense than Ikuya could’ve predicted and his lips part in a surprised little _o_ at the sight. “Not even me.”

Okay, no. Ikuya thought they had put this type of thinking behind them but of course, sometimes things like that are ingrained so deep that it takes a lot of time and repetition to wash away, like the ocean slowly grinding rocks into fine sand. (Yeah, Haru is definitely rubbing off on him.) Hiyori’s laidback attitude and internalized self-criticism make it easy to underestimate how deep his thoughts might or might not be taking him on any given day, and Ikuya knows that he understands Hiyori better than anyone else but he still isn’t sure he’s right about Hiyori’s feelings one hundred percent of the time.

“That’s not true,” Ikuya says, fiercely, so Hiyori knows he’s serious. It’s not often he has a reason to raise his voice or anything on a daily basis, because he’s not an idiot like Asahi who gets worked up over every little thing. Still, though, he wants to make it clear that this is important. He stands before Hiyori and looks him square in the eye, without a hint of hesitation. “Hiyori, you’re one of the smartest, most charismatic, compassionate, and reliable people I’ve ever met in my life. Dating you isn’t a result of the proximity effect or something, so don’t talk like that.”

Hiyori’s severity dissolves into the night air, and he tilts his head at Ikuya like a quizzical puppy before saying, “That was really cute, Ikuya.”

The tension breaks. “Stop- calling me cute out of nowhere!” Ikuya turns back to keep walking and pulls Hiyori forward again. It has the added benefit of hiding how fond his smile is, aimed somewhere at the sidewalk around his feet.

“Hm, you want me to just lie like that?” Hiyori catches up in a few easy strides. “Lying is strictly against my moral code. The people have to know the truth.”

“You’re calling _me_ cute while talking _to me.”_

“You’re one of the people.”

Ikuya snorts under his breath, and Hiyori gives him an absolutely shit-eating grin at the sound. “That was _really-_ ”

“Do _not_ finish that sentence.”

“Complimenting my boyfriend is self-care.”

Hiyori’s presence, in general, makes time go by faster and before Ikuya expects it they’re at 7/11. Hiyori buys Ikuya a pistachio flavored éclair on top of his own bento and a couple kombu onigiri, even though Ikuya tells him he doesn’t need sweets at nearly nine p.m. Before they go Ikuya grabs them a few bottles of tea, genmaicha and black milk, because he has a feeling they’ll want it later and as much as he likes hanging out with Hiyori he doesn’t really want to make another late night conbini trip in a few hours.

Ikuya holds out one of the milk tea bottles after they’ve headed out of the store. Hiyori’s behind him, quickly side-stepping a close collision with a few high school girls walking in the opposite direction and calling out an apology to them before catching up.

“Hey, Ikuya, can- Oh, thanks.” Hiyori takes the drink, and Ikuya can tell he’s pleased, like he’s reminded Hiyori of one of his “Favorite Ikuya Things™”, as he once explained over text. “You know me so well. You’re my favorite.” Then he offers Ikuya one of the onigiri and Ikuya has to fight back the urge to respond with something as childish as “no you”.

The walk back is quiet, both of them distracted by their snacks, and by the time they reach the apartment, the hour begins to feel like it’s catching up to them. Hiyori gets his key out first and before he can drop the bag of food on the counter and go back to his desk Ikuya says in his most frowny tone, “Hiyori. You have to eat food that isn’t caffeinated drinks, that was the whole point of going out.”

Hiyori’s torn, glancing between Ikuya in the kitchen and his laptop, caught between listening to his boyfriend and the knowledge of the impending panic that will set in as soon as he sits back down and sees how much he has to review before his first class.

“All right, but I need to do this reading.”

Ikuya just nods and brings the bento over to the coffee table by the couch. “Come here.”

Hiyori glances back in confusion from where he’s pulling the nearly-unopened textbook from his bag. Ikuya sits and waits for him to come over too. “Huh? Okay.”

Ikuya positions himself carefully on the couch, sideways up against one armrest and stretching his nearer leg across the other cushions, then opens his arms in what could not more obviously be an invitation to sit in his lap and get comfortable so they can cuddle while Hiyori reads.

He’s caught off guard and for as much as he says the same thing to Ikuya, it’s really, _really_ cute that he can never take the kind of teasing he dishes out. Though, the disbelief and embarrassment on his face at such an open display of affection for Ikuya’s standards is quickly replaced by delight.

Not a day goes by that Hiyori isn’t difficult as a person at least once, so instead of going along with what Ikuya was offering, he sets his book down and promptly flops (without dropping much actual weight) onto Ikuya the opposite way, so he can prop his chin on Ikuya’s chest and smile up at him innocently. His glasses get in the way so Ikuya pulls them off, folding them and setting them on the back of the couch for the moment.

Ikuya makes sure Hiyori can see him rolling his eyes from where he’s laying. “It’ll be pretty hard to study from here.”

“Guess I have to fail. Tragic.”

“You’re going to regret wasting this time in about an hour, I hope you know that.”

“I _do_ know that, so let me enjoy this for now. I’m coping.”

Ikuya rests a hand on Hiyori’s head for a second, running his fingers gentle through the strands- his hair is pretty, Ikuya’s always thought so, maple chestnut autumn and soft. Just citrus-smelling enough that the color and scent remind him of marmalade.

“If you start studying right now I’ll feed you.”

That gets his attention. “Really?”

“Really. But it’s a reward for focusing, so if you don’t then you have to do it yourself.”

Hiyori pouts at him for all of four seconds before brightening and then turning over to grab his book. “All right! Time to dive into hell!” It’s funny, but when Hiyori crams he’s more focused than anyone else in any other situation Ikuya has ever seen, so he settles in for a long night.

Ikuya’s true to his word- every so often he’ll feel Hiyori sigh against his chest and adjust his glasses or turn a page, and Ikuya carefully gets a chopsticks-sized bite with rice and pickled plums or fish and navigate it (not without a few incidents, which will ultimately end in cleaning spots off the floor) for Hiyori to eat.

It’s awkward, honestly, and not as sweet as it sounded to either of them due to their positions, but it’s fine. Life with Hiyori is… a lot to take in sometimes, but in times like this, it’s like everything else is light years away. Ikuya doesn’t have to see Hiyori’s face to know his brow is furrowed in concentration and that his wrist moving like that is because he’s tapping the end of his pen against his lips while he debates over facts and figures in his head. In times like this, alone together, Ikuya can’t help but think they don’t have to travel anywhere at all to be the only people in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed this as much as i enjoyed yours!!!! ヽ(・∀・)ﾉ your prompt was so general i just kind of went wild with dumb boyfriend fluff so i'd be happy if it was close to what you were looking for…
> 
>  
> 
> on a more general note, unrelated to dive2thenewyear, etc:  
> TW for irl death, hover here for text SO i have been a little bit emotionally fucked up since then, which is why i delayed a number of things on my to do list including human interactions. i, too, am coping. that also means i might post 30 fics in the next month or 0, i can't really tell yet, but writing this piece definitely helped cheer me up so i'm going to try to keep up the momentum!


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